Despite strong international denunciations, the new government of Claudia Sheinbaum continues to imprison five Tseltal defenders from San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas, in a case that has been described as a serious human rights violation.
On September 3, 2025, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, human rights groups, family members, and Indigenous organizations held a press conference to denounce the continued imprisonment of Manuel Santiz Cruz, Agustín Pérez Domínguez, Juan Velasco Aguilar, Martín Pérez Domínguez, and Agustín Pérez Velasco, all originally from the Tseltal community of San Juan Cancuc. The demand was clear: immediate release, as ordered by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its Opinion 21/2025.
“We have been imprisoned for more than three years, paying for a crime we did not commit. We know that during the trial everything was false, the evidence was fabricated, and the crime for which we are unjustly paying is being carried out.”
From inside the Social Reintegration Center for Sentenced Persons (CERSS) No. 5, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the prisoners have spoken clearly and with dignity. In a public letter, they stated: “We have been imprisoned here in the CERESO for more than three years, paying for a crime we did not commit. We know that during the trial everything was false, the evidence was fabricated, and the crime for which we are unjustly paying is being carried out. (…) Enough of fabricating crimes! Enough of detaining innocent people! Freedom for all political prisoners!”
This message, read at the conference by family members and representatives of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), reflects an uncomfortable truth for the Mexican government: the Cancuc Five are in prison on charges lacking solid evidence, without respect for due process, and without adequate access to legal counsel or an interpreter in their native language.
What did the UN say?
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was categorical: the detention of the five Tseltal people is arbitrary. The organization concluded that: The charge was weak and lacked conclusive evidence; the right to due process was violated; a fair trial was not guaranteed; the pretrial detention was applied without justification; and the process was flawed from the start by structural racism and linguistic and cultural discrimination. Consequently, the international organization demanded their immediate release, full reparation for the damages, and an investigation into the authorities responsible for fabricating the case.
A political case, not a judicial one
So far, the Mexican government—now under the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum—has not heeded any of these recommendations. The context of the arrests has a structural root: San Juan Cancuc has historically been a territory organized by grassroots organizations that has resisted militarization, megaprojects, and institutional imposition. The five prisoners are recognized in their community for their work as defenders and promoters of rights.
The criminalization came after a community protest over the police presence in the region. The result was a charge of aggravated homicide for the death of a police officer, in which the five were accused without physical evidence or consistent witnesses. Several reports suggest that the evidence was fabricated and that the prosecutor’s office acted with malice aforethought.
“They have stolen three years of our lives, they have stolen our chance to see our children grow up, but they have not stolen our dignity or our hope of obtaining justice.”
“They have stolen three years of our lives, they have stolen our chance to see our children grow up, but they have not stolen our dignity or our hope of obtaining justice,” the prisoners stated in another letter sent in August. The phrase encapsulates the pain of unjust imprisonment, but also the strength with which they have endured these years.
The State’s response: indifference
Most alarming is that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has completely ignored national and international demands. There has been no official statement on United Nations Opinion 21/2025, nor has a review of the case been initiated, nor has her release been proposed through legal or political means.
Organizations such as Frayba and the Working Group “No Estamos Todxs” have pointed out that this indifference amounts to complicity. “If the new administration wants to show itself different from Obradorism, this is the moment. Releasing the five Cancuc prisoners would be a minimal act of justice and a message to Indigenous peoples that there is political will,” said a Frayba spokesperson during the press conference.
A fundamental part of the problem, human rights defenders believe, is the use of pretrial detention, a widely criticized legal framework that allows people to be imprisoned without trial or sentencing, under the pretext of “dangerousness.” This mechanism has been questioned by the UN, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and various national organizations, as it amounts to preemptive punishment, especially against Indigenous people, the poor, and political dissidents. The case of the Cancuc Five is emblematic of how this concept is used to imprison those who defend their territories and ways of life.
The Promised Change That Never Arrives
During her campaign, Claudia Sheinbaum claimed that her government would be one of continuity with the Obrador administration in social matters, but with a profound commitment to human rights. However, in Chiapas—one of the most militarized states and with the greatest repression against indigenous peoples—there are no signs of change. Meanwhile, the five Tseltals remain imprisoned.
Opinion 21/2025 is not a UN suggestion, but a mandate from an international organization of which Mexico is a member. Ignoring it not only prolongs the injustice, it also discredits the Mexican state’s commitment to human rights and reaffirms that, for Indigenous peoples, there is no real justice within the Mexican judicial system. “Civil society, human rights organizations, and independent media have a responsibility to keep this case alive. We cannot allow more months to pass without a strong response from the federal government,” the social defenders stated.
For some time now, the slogan “Free the Cancuc prisoners!” has been heard at every march, every press conference, and every statement issued from the mountains of Chiapas. But it has also begun to resonate in international forums, human rights forums, and solidarity campaigns.
Organizations defending the detainees believe that if Claudia Sheinbaum’s government wants to make a difference, it must begin by releasing the five Tseltal people from Cancuc, complying with the UN resolution, and opening a real reparation process. “Anything less would be a continuation of the model of repression and impunity that has punished those organizing from the bottom up for decades,” concluded one social activist.
Source: elsaltodiario
